Blood stained pages

We have some really beautiful Christian friends and I praise God for them – they are such a blessings to us.

When we are together the conversation invariably turns to Christ and we encourage each other in the Lord.

Some of them however are pretty scared and might I say terrified to meet our Lord when the time comes for us to gather around the judgement throne – for all of us will be judged according the Scripture.

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

So should we be scared to meet God? God in His awesomeness? The very word awesome actually can mean terrifying, so our friends may have a point!

Yes! I truly believe that our God is awesome and terrifying in some ways and I have no doubt that I personally will fall flat on my face when I come into contact with Him on the wondrous day.

But God is also faithful and true to His promises and I praise Him for that fact.

So should we be scared to Him? I firmly believe we shouldn’t be. And I can say that with confidence because God spells out very plainly that anyone who comes to Him, confesses their guilt and turns away from their sins; trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus to cover ALL past and future sins, then He will show us compassion, mercy and love.

Believing that the amazing gift offered to us at Calvary when Jesus died to cover our sins, we can come before the awesome Creator of the universe with all confidence and assurance that He will accept us into the place he has prepared for us with Him.

Now some Christians view the judgement seat of Christ in abject terror, a place of intense scrutiny and sorrow where all of our past sins will be on display for all to see and that we will experience suffering and punishment at God’s hands for those sins.

They believe that Jesus, as Judge, will examine in careful and minute detail every word and motive and every past sin through this examination and although forgiven will have to explain in detail every sin committed.

I feel this is contrary to the life and death of Jesus who died once and for all sins. He paid that penalty for us and if we have to give an account of those sins again then that would be contrary to the teaching of 1 Thessalonians 5: 9 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us”.

So Jesus’ death paid that penalty for us – we don’t have to pay it again at Judgement; isn’t that saying that Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t enough?

I personally believe that the Judgement seat of Christ will be a truly serious examination of our past lives yet the emphasis will be on the importance and necessity of faithful living. I also believe that any good works done purely under my own power will be regarded as worthless while anything done in the power of His Holy Spirit will be rewarded.

Now “rewards” smack of merit instead of grace and as we know works mean nothing unless they come from a heart and life fully committed to God – but rewards are freely and often mentioned in the Bible and even though we may feel unworthy about even the idea of rewards they are a real part of the necessity of Judgement.

We should serve God out of love and for His Glory; but the fact remains that the Bible promises rewards.

So I believe where the Judgement seat of Christ will be much more than a ‘rewards ceremony’ it WILL BE a place where we stand glorified before Him minus our old sin nature! There will be no need for further examination and/or punishment because Jesus has taken the wrath of God away from us who believe.

So let’s be very sure about this just in case some us will draw the wrong conclusions. Jesus teaches us plainly that there are very serious and very specific consequences, both here on earth and for eternity for sin and disobedience.

Although, I feel that we as Christians won’t be judged for past and forgiven sins, since Jesus did that for us, and we are now a child of God saved by grace, (see John 3:18) we must never, under any circumstances, take sin lightly!

I believe that our sins which were many are all washed away by the blood of Jesus. We don’t know or need to know the details of the judgement only to know that the Judge is righteous and just (2 Timothy 4:8) and only He will be able to balance all the variables; individual gifts and uncertainties of life and the opportunities we are given.

I am reminded of Crystal Lewis’ song “Bloodstained Pages” which goes like this:-

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